Dachau (Concentration camp)

The Dachau concentration camp was established in March 1933. It was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government. It was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the northeastern part of the town of Dachau in southern Germany.

During the first year, the camp had a capacity of 5,000 prisoners. Initially the internees were primarily German Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and other political opponents of the Nazi regime. Over time, other groups were also interned at Dachau, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), gay men, as well as "asocials" and repeat criminal offenders. During the early years relatively few Jews were interned in Dachau and then usually because they belonged to one of the above groups or had completed prison sentences after being convicted for violating the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. The number of Jewish prisoners at Dachau rose with the increased persecution of Jews. On November 10–11, 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, almost 11,000 Jewish men were interned there. Most of the men in this group were released after incarceration of a few weeks to a few months, many after proving they had made arrangements to emigrate from Germany.

Following the deportation of German Jews to ghettos and killing centers in the German-occupied east, the population of Jews in Dachau decreased dramatically. Jews again figured among its prisoner population when death marches brought thousands of prisoners from these camps in the east into the German interior.

Beginning in 1942, German physicians performed medical experiments on prisoners in Dachau. Physicians and scientists from the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) and the German Experimental Institute for Aviation conducted high-altitude and hypothermia experiments, as well as experiments to test methods for making seawater potable. These efforts aimed to aid German pilots who conducted bombing raids or who were downed in icy waters. German scientists also carried out experiments to test the efficacy of pharmaceuticals against diseases like malaria and tuberculosis. Hundreds of prisoners died or were harmed as a result of these experiments.

Dachau prisoners were used as forced laborers. Prisoners built roads, worked in gravel pits, and drained marshes. During the war, forced labor using concentration camp prisoners became increasingly important to German armaments production. In the summer and fall of 1944, to increase war production, satellite camps under the administration of Dachau were established near armaments factories throughout southern Germany.

Dachau alone had some 140 subcamps, mainly in southern Bavaria where prisoners worked almost exclusively in armaments works. Thousands of prisoners were worked to death. The number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau between 1933 and 1945 exceeded 200,000. It is difficult to estimate the number of prisoners who died at Dachau. The thousands brought to the camp for execution were not registered before their deaths. Furthermore, the number of deaths that occurred during evacuation have not been assessed. Scholars believe that at least 40,000 prisoners died at Dachau.